How to Install PyQt5 on PyCharm?

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PyQt5 is a Python library for Qt version 5. Qt is a collection of C++ libraries for accessing modern desktop and mobile systems such as location and positioning services, multimedia, NFC and Bluetooth connectivity, web browser, and UI.

Problem Formulation: Given a PyCharm project. How to install the PyQt5 library in your project within a virtual environment or globally?

Here’s a solution that always works:

  • Open File > Settings > Project from the PyCharm menu.
  • Select your current project.
  • Click the Python Interpreter tab within your project tab.
  • Click the small + symbol to add a new library to the project.
  • Now type in the library to be installed, in your example "PyQt5" without quotes, and click Install Package.
  • Wait for the installation to terminate and close all popup windows.

Here’s the installation process as a short animated video—it works analogously for PyQt5, just type in “pyqt5” in the search field instead:

Make sure to select only “PyQt5” because there are many other packages that are not required but also contain the term “pyqt5” (False positives):

pyqt5 install package PyCharm settings

Alternatively, you can run the pip install PyQt5 command in your PyCharm “Terminal” view:

$ pip install PyQt5
pip install pyqt5 PyCharm

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